JACKSON, Mississippi (AP) — Another public university in Mississippi has stopped flying the state flag that prominently features the Confederate battle emblem.

Mississippi State University becomes the sixth of the state’s eight universities to do so.

University spokesman Sid Salter said Tuesday that President Mark Keenum approved deans’ plans to remove the flag from most parts of the Starkville campus. It has been replaced with larger American flags.

Keenum was elected president of the Southeastern Conference in April.

Mississippi’s Confederate-themed flag has been criticized as a symbol of racial oppression. State voters overwhelmingly supported keeping it in 2001.

Salter didn’t immediately say how many flags were removed or when. He said Mississippi’s flag remains part of a 50-state display in a cafeteria.

The University of Mississippi and the University of Southern Mississippi removed state flags last year. Three historically black universities removed them earlier.